


Special Credits

by Serahne



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: College AU, M/M, Where Light is an overconfident student, and L is his asshole teacher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 15:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11831292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serahne/pseuds/Serahne
Summary: "The room was almost empty, except for the lockers, a couple of tables, two ugly couches, a coffee maker with a bunch of dirty mugs surrounding it, and… a chessboard ?Light looked at it, intrigued to see such thing in the teacher’s lounge, and even more intrigued to see that there was apparently a game going on between two adversaries who weren’t there for now. After a brief analysis, he concluded that the blacks were almost done, really, cornered as they were and about to have their queen taken. It was lost cause but…He couldn’t help his brain to find a way to change the game. Throwing a quick glance at the door as if he was about to commit a felony, he moved the black knight to block the bishop to take the queen. After that, he looked at the game, satisfied. The blacks were still in a dire situation, but not an hopeless one. He hoped whoever was playing would be grateful."





	Special Credits

The teachers lounge was empty, even though the door was unlocked and Light thought that it was rather telling of the teacher’s low income through the country that not one of them had something steal-worthy in the room, but it was convenient. He could wait inside.

He had never been in the teacher’s lounge before. And really, it made sense : the only time students had business in this room was when they were turning their assignment late and had to put it into a teacher’s locker, or when they needed advice or help in their classes.

Needless to say, Light wasn’t the kind of student who was late with their homework. He was a straight-A student, a ‘genius’ as the rumor liked to call him, the pride of their college, the kind that his teachers would brag about in the future ‘I was the teacher of Light Yagami, it was obvious he would do great thing with his life, I can’t help but think that I took part in the formation of this bright young man.' It was okay, Light thought. If they wanted the scraps of his success, they could have them.

Looking at the bleakness of the room, he even felt some pity for them. The room was almost empty, except for the lockers, a couple of tables, two ugly couches, a coffee maker with a bunch of dirty mugs surrounding it, and… a chessboard ?

Light looked at it, intrigued to see such thing in the teacher’s lounge, and even more intrigued to see that there was apparently a game going on between two adversaries who weren’t there for now. After a brief analysis, he concluded that the blacks were almost done, really, cornered as they were and about to have their queen taken. It was lost cause but…

He couldn’t help his brain to find a way to change the game. Throwing a quick glance at the door as if he was about to commit a felony, he moved the black knight to block the bishop to take the queen. After that, he looked at the game, satisfied. The blacks were still in a dire situation, but not an hopeless one. He hoped whoever was playing would be grateful.

The door opened behind him, revealing a woman in perfectly-adjusted tailor, holding a cup of coffee in her hand ( apparently the coffee machine wasn’t that good at its job ). She was his philosophy teacher and while he didn’t like her that much it was important for her to like him for she was the one noting him.

“Light Yagami, what a surprise !” Light bowed slightly and she offered him a bright smile. People tended to smile around Light, he was used to it, even with people he didn’t know. “What are you doing there ?”

“I’m waiting for M. Lawliet” he said, being careful to not mention why he needed to see him. “Do you know where he is ?”

“Really ? I’m scared he’s already gone home” she replied, obviously sorry for him. “He’ll be there tomorrow, if that can wait ? I’ll tell him you are looking for him.”

Light nodded and managed a tight smile.

“Thank you” he said “Have a nice day”.

*

The next day the teachers lounge was empty again when he went there, but the thing he noticed right away was that someone had moved a piece on the chessboard. Only one : the white bishop. He blinked, wondering why the players had only decided to make one move before letting the chessboard alone. They had obviously noticed Light’s interruption, but had apparently decided to play against Light instead of against each others.

The players seemed really careless at first, giving him the possibility to go for the White Queen, but Light wasn’t an idiot : after a few minutes he realized that doing so would lead to his defeat in a couple of moves. Smirking, he decided to protect his King, just in case his opponents had something in their sleeves.

No one came into the lounge, not Lawliet and not the teacher from the day before, and Light couldn’t do anything else besides going home, cursing this teacher for not having an e-mail address or a cellphone like any normal human being.

*

The third day, Light didn’t even bother to knock on the door and was absolutely not surprised that no one was in there - the room was apparently so awful that teachers were avoiding it - and his first glance was for the chessboard, in the corner of the room. He couldn’t help but smile when he noticed that someone had made their move, and was even more satisfied to see that they had chosen to retract in defeat, after Light refused to take the bait.

It was time for him to attack, he decided. Just a try, to see how the others would react. He moved his tower until the threat to the queen was obvious. His opponent could easily protect her, but he would have to either sacrifice his rourke for it or to move his bishop, which would create an opportunity for him. In either case, it was worth the shot.

“Ah !” a voice behind him made him jump “ So you were the one who decided to mess with my game ?”

Light turned around, mortified, and saw the person he has been looking for two days in front of him, wide smile and wide eyes, and absolutely no fashion sense. His law teacher and the one who dared to give him a B for his class.

Light Yagami didn’t have Bs. It was either a mistake or an unfair treatment from someone who wanted to ‘break’ him, teach him that he wasn’t as good as he thought he was. He had teachers like that in the past and knew how to deal with them, but he hoped that this case was an easier one.

“I’m not messing up anything” he said. “I’m helping”.

Lawliet smiled, obviously amused, and focused his attention toward the coffer maker, turning on the device which started to emit a low and annoying ‘hmmm’.

“I wanted to talk to you” Light said, and since Lawliet didn’t reply, he kept going. “About my grades. You gave me a B.”

“Yes, I seem to remember something like that” the other man commented, and Light couldn’t help but wondering if he was imagining the sarcasm in his voice. But unfortunately, that also meant that the ‘mistake’ theory was out of the window. Whatever, as long as he was in the right, he wouldn’t bow to an asshole teacher who had decided he didn’t like him.

“I don’t think a B is a very fair grade for my work” he tried his best to be polite, his voice sweet like honey, the tone that made the girls swoons and his parents exchange a tender “look at our angel, isn’t he perfect ?” look. Lawliet didn’t seem really receptive.

“Come on” he replied. “You’re underestimating yourself, Light, your work wasn’t that bad, and yes, maybe I gave you a B because I like you, and the way you are always there at 9, first rank on my left, fresh and awake. I know a teacher shouldn’t have a favorite but what can I do I am only hu…”

“I deserve an A” Light cut him off, realizing that there was no doubt this time : this guy was mocking him. He wasn’t even sure why, really, for he was right : Light never skipped a lesson, never slept in class, never talked to the other students, always turned his assignments on time. Apparently Lawliet was the weirdest human being in the world and had decided that he didn’t like it. “You’ve read my paper, it was brilliant. Sir.” his tone had lost the calm, composed, reverent tone he had worked on for years, but he needed to stay polite, no matter what.

Lawliet turned his head toward the student, and Light had the terrible feeling of being analyzed, scanned. He felt a shudder run through his spine. He didn’t know Lawliet besides for the four hours-class he had with him everyday. No one liked him, but Light enjoyed the lectures more than he should have. He managed to be somehow interesting, which was something when it came to law.

“The reason you didn’t get an A, Light Yagami, is because you failed the last question. The Carmichael case.” he said. Light could perfectly remember this part of the assignment and didn’t see any flaw in his answer. He had been pretty proud of his conclusion, even. But Lawliet felt his confusion : “ I asked for a personal work, you used someone else’s. Very good answer, but in no way personal.”

Light felt the burn of anger in his body. Plagiarism ? Was it what he was accused of ?

“I didn’t steal anything” he said, offended by the mere suggestion. “I don’t need to copy-paste another work to get a good grade, it must be a coincidence.”

“A coincidence ? I don’t think so.” Lawliet’s tone was smug, and it was obvious he didn’t really care about what Light could say but he was innocent. He had done his work by himself, and if someone had the same idea than him, well, that was unfortunate.

“See, Light, the conclusion that you plagiarized comes from my own notes when I worked on this case. There is no mistake there.”

Light blinked, as if he expected for the teacher to admit that it was joke. But since the silence wasn’t interrupted, he had to do it himself.

“That’s ridiculous ! Why would I steal your work, especially when I know you’ll be the one who is going to grade me ? Someone doing it would be incredibly stupid.” he defended himself.

“Hum, yes” Lawliet agreed. “What can I say, it seems that even the greatest mind of our time ( he chuckled after saying that ) can have a bad day. Rest assured that it was impossible for you to come to the same conclusion than me in only four days when I needed almost one month”

“I didn’t steal anything” Light repeated. “I did all this by myself.”

“That’s impossible” and Lawliet’s infuriating smile was so grating that Light wanted to punch him.

He glared at the teacher. “Not for me. I did it.”

Silence. Both of them glared at each other for a moment, the tension rising. At the end, Lawliet sighed.

“Fine. Maybe we can find a solution to this problem.”

Light frowned. “Yes, you give me the A I deserve.” Gone was the sweetness, and the politeness too. Lawliet didn’t seem to mind too much but was still looking at him with his weird, black eyes, and Light wished he wasn’t.

“No. But you really seem to want this A, and I can give it to you. If you do me a favor first, alright ?” Lawliet’s smile widened.

Light took a step back. Funny, he hadn’t thought about it at all. Not that no one had ever tried before, but it was in High School and a word to his father had been enough to deal with it. As infuriating as he was, he hadn’t thought the guy would stoop so low.

“So” he said, coldly. “That’s how it is, then ? The teacher trading good grades against sexual relationships with his students. Pretty pathetic, don’t you think ?”

Lawliet shook his head, his way-too-big eyes expressing surprise.

“Sexual relationship ?” he replied, and Light swore that he was about to burst into laughter. “Good god, Light, no. Why would I try to trick a stuck-up and probably virgin nineteen years old boy into having sex with me ? It’s no different than rob a shop with only a bunch of coins in the cash drawer. The risk isn’t worth the potential benefit, if you get what I mean.”

Light managed to bit his tongue before being even more rude than he was already, knowing that denying the ‘virgin’ part would be even more embarrassing than not saying anything.

“Whatever, what do you want ?”

But of course, Lawliet wanted to torture him some more.

“You know, it’s funny but if I ask any teacher what they think of you, they’ll tell me the same story ‘the most amazing student I’ve ever had’, ‘a delight to have in class’, ‘a studious boy who will do great things later’. I feel privileged to not having be fed the same lies than everyone else, to be honest.”

“Well” Light answered with some bite in the voice “Most of the teachers never insulted me before”. Having been called a ‘thief’ by this pitiful looking guy had really been like being slapped in the face. He couldn’t let it pass.

“Insulted ?” the other repeated. “I’m sorry for not accepting to engage in an intercourse with you, I didn’t know it would be so hard on you. If it softens the blow to your ego, your are ridiculously attractive, and if I didn’t want something else from you, you would definitely be moaning against the wall by now.”

Lawliet had just said that with a perfectly blank face and Light almost choked on his saliva, throwing a worried look at the door behind him to be sure than no one had entered the room to hear such things. Lawliet rolled his eyes, mumbling something about ‘nineteen years old’ that he didn’t want to hear.

“So” he said again. “What do you want ? And I swear if you keep not answering, I’m out of here.”

Lawliet bowed his head in direction of the chessboard.

“A game. If you win you get the A. If I win, you keep the B. If it’s draw… I may take your offer on this sexual favor thing.” he said, as if he was just thinking about it now.

Light waved off the last part - he knew Lawliet was going to milk it as long as it embarrassed him and he wouldn’t give him the satisfaction to blush - and looked at the chessboard. He could do it. It was… easy. The other one may have been good, but Light was better.

“What about your opponent ? Is it okay if I’m taking his place ?” he inquired.

“Opponent ? I’m playing against myself, Light. Really, until now, I hadn’t met anyone able to meet me on this field. But if you are as clever as you think you are, you should be able to beat me, right ?” Lawliet replied, pleased to see Light consider the option.

“Right. Let’s do it, then.” Light said, knowing that he shouldn’t have to play a game of chess to get his A, but it was easy. He could do it. And he hadn’t played chess in since forever, for he didn’t have anyone to play against, and playing against himself was really unappealing.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I have to go.” Lawliet moved closer from the chessboard, examined it for a few seconds and moved his queen. “There, I’ll play again tomorrow. Let’s keep it easy. One move a day, just what we did these last few days, does it seem fair ?”

“But you have to change my grade before the end of the month !” Light said.

Lawliet pretended to think about the question then shrugged.

“Then you’ll have to win before the end of the month.”

“That’s-”

“Can you do it ?” Lawliet’s face was the most serious Light had ever seen it. Suddenly nervous, he licked his lips and felt Lawliet’s eyes follow his tongue, noticing how the dilatation of his pupils. Light smirked. A challenge. He could do challenge, and hoped this one wouldn’t be too easy.

“Yes, I can. Of course, I can.” Lawliet seemed very satisfied with his answer.

“Wonderful. Same time tomorrow ?”


End file.
